Flame of Youth

Outside the Wolf Club, wayward high school student Geraldine "Jerry" Briggs waits in the parking lot, while her partner in crime, Al, steals hubcaps from parked cars. When a patron named Steve Miller notices his hubcaps missing, he phones the police, and Jerry is apprehended. At the police station, Jerry tells Officer O'Brien of the Juvenile Prevention Bureau that she lives with her father George and the police phone George and ask him to come and pick up his daughter. Although she assures George of her innocence, Jerry sneaks out later to a gas station owned by racketeer Bert "Cicero" Coletti. After Coletti pays Jerry for the hubcap job, his sister Lila insults her and demands that she leave. At home, George's bookmaker, Deke Edwards, threatens him with violence if he does not immediately pay a gambling debt he owes. When Jerry learns of the threat, she gives the grateful and unquestioning George the money he needs. Later, Jerry meets Deke at a soda shop, owned by her friend, Bill Crawford, and they decide to use money from the bookmaking operation to launch Jerry's modeling career. At the gas station, Jerry makes a date to go out with Coletti later, then returns home, where her sister Catherine begs her not to become involved with bookmaking. When Coletti arrives, Jerry realizes she has mistakenly arranged two dates for that evening and breaks her plans with Deke. Later, Deke borrows some money from Jerry so that he can take Lila out instead. When Deke tells Lila that he will lose his leased car unless he pays the finance company sixty-five dollars, she agrees to lend him the money. After the owner of the local junk yard, Loomis, leaves for his evening meal at a nearby cafe, Jerry breaks into the yard. As she is leaving with Loomis' money jar, Jerry meets Lila, who tries to take it from her. When Loomis returns unexpectedly from the cafe, he finds Jerry and Lila struggling over the jar. He draws his gun and shoots Lila, while Jerry escapes after ripping her slacks on a chain link fence. As Loomis reports the crime to police, Coletti bursts in and accuses him of hiring neighborhood children to steal car parts. Later, high school student Barb Spranklin discovers the piece of material ripped from Jerry's slacks and reports it to the police. When questioned by Catherine about the large sum of money in her purse, Jerry claims that she won it at the races. Catherine, however, guesses that the money belongs to Loomis and returns it to him. Later, Barb finds the